So if you follow me on twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you already know what happened Sunday night: Oliver and Callum were goofing off on the couch (somersaults and jumping and all sorts), and I got up to cook dinner while singing my favourite song “one of you is going to get hurrrrrrrt”, and then one of them DID get hurt. Oliver pushed Callum off the couch (so they say; I didn’t even see it) and somehow he broke his elbow.

Little tiny boy in a big cast kind of makes me want to weep.

We were really lucky to only spend about 2.5 hours in the Emergency department on Sunday night, from start to finish.  Callum was in obvious pain, Oliver was way too interested in all the other patients and their ills, and I was on my own with them.

It’s times like these, times when we are stuck, like on a plane for 14 hours a couple of weeks ago, or waiting for an x-ray, like Sunday, that I am so thankful for my iPod touch.  I mean, I adore the thing anyway. I probably love it too much. When there’s wi-fi, I have a constant connection to email and twitter. I can sit outside with the kids and read the news.

In desperate times, I let the kids play with it (otherwise, they leave it alone on threat of death…). We recently discovered Talking Carl, and they’re finding it hilarious to torture him (worrisome!), but I don’t have full use of that app as it is better suited for an iPhone.  Their favourite apps are  puzzle games, Shape Builder Lite and Tozzle Lite, and ones involving farm animals (Occupy Baby Lite has On the Farm, and they always like Peekaboo Barn Lite). (Gee, do you see how cheap I am?! Free apps all around!)

Thanks to Mom Central Canada, we were recently able to try out 3 new apps from My Living Stories.  I asked Oliver, and he decided he wanted to download The Tortoise and the Hare, King Midas, and Goldilocks.

Review:

As with Talking Carl, My Living Stories apps are better suited for an iPhone rather than an iPod touch as they give you the opportunity to record your own voice to tell the story. I suppose I could get a microphone for the touch.  I can see that a voice recording would be neat for a kid missing a parent, grandparent or other significant person.

I liked the graphics of the stories. They were clear.  The child-like voice reading the stories was also clear.  Sometimes, however, the background music seemed to drown out the voice of the reader.  We found it especially hard to hear the narrator of King Midas in parts. 

The kids enjoyed the stories, which they were already familiar with except for King Midas.  Overall, I think it would have made more sense to have a collection of many stories as one app, rather than one story per app, but I’m not familiar with how technically difficult that would be.

Giveaway:

Hey Canadians, would you like to win a $25 iTunes card?

Here’s how:

1. Leave a comment on this post between now and August 10, 2010 at 7pm EST. Please indicate which My Living Stories app you think you’d be interested in (you can choose from the Princess & the Pea, King Midas, The Tortoise & the Hare, Little Red Riding Hood, and Goldilocks & the Three Bears). Do you have other favourite apps for your kids?
2. Please leave one comment per person only. There are no extra entries for any other activities (e.g. tweeting about it).
3. Please make sure your comment includes your email address.
4. Contest is open to Canadians only. 
5. Readers may enter the contests on multiple blogs participating in this My Living Stories Mom Central blog tour, but are only eligible to win one iTunes gift card.
6. I will use random.org to select one winner on August 10th after 7pm EST.
7. I will contact you and ask you for a postal address if you have won. I will provide your name and postal address to Mom Central Canada for it to be used to send you your prize.
8. You do not need to be a parent to enter this contest. Maybe you’d like to record a story for your favourite niece/nephew/random kid you know.

Good luck!

I’m sure I’ll be getting out my iPod touch again when Callum has his first cast off next week…ugh…

Disclosure: I am participating in the My Living Stories program by Mom Central on behalf of Decode Entertainment. I received 3 free apps and a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

PS: also still a giveaway going on, on the other blog, for UnderWAY supplement drinks, which claim to curb hunger, until August 3rd.

Wednesday night is soccer night — which means dinner is prepared in a hurry, so anyone going can get out the door 20 minutes after we all get home.  I stuck a frozen thin crust pizza in the oven, ‘quattro formaggi’, cut up some strawberries, picked some grapes from the stem, and left out a box of field green & herb salad.

The boys sat down to eat, and I grabbed a slice of pizza. I suddenly had the idea to put some of the salad leaves on top of my pizza. I sat down, took a bite, and my time machine took me back to 2001.

July 18, 2001. My birthday. And I was crabby that it was my birthday and no one seemed to care (sometimes, I’m sulky and it’s stupid, I know). And it was really stinking hot. But? It was also Jean and Michelle’s wedding day. We were in Rome, Italy. We had come on this trip, the three of us, with the intention of getting these lovely people married in Rome. There had been problems getting the marriage license. There had been delays from their original planned wedding date as there was a minimum residency requirement. But today? They were getting married. For real.

Their Catholic priest back home in Northern Ontario had a connection to an American priest in Rome. I think I vaguely remember there had been a quick phone conversation to confirm that he would perform the ceremony.  We had ideas of a what a Catholic church wedding in Rome would be like – particularly after sight seeing on foot the previous few days, including a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica. I am not a Catholic. There is no god in my life. But visiting the Vatican just bowled me over.

Anyway; we found the church. And it was incredibly unlike St. Peter’s. It was kind of retro, maybe built in the 60′s. But here was the priest – a lovely, friendly man, whose American English was delicious after days of thick Italian blundering (by us).

I can’t remember everything about that day. I know I wore an unflattering long pale green dress I’d never wear today. I know that Jean and Michelle were so happy, and I had a tear in my eye. I know there was a funny old Italian man as a witness, besides me.

What I mostly remember is the priest taking us out for a meal afterwards. We went to a restaurant we never would have experienced: a small family-run place, nondescript. I was just guessing at what was on the menu, my Italian lacking. I ended up with a cheese pizza with rocket/arugula on top, and it felt like the best meal I had ever eaten. I can taste it now. I tasted it tonight, when I sort of recreated it. Almost. I was almost there.

We were invited back to the monastery to stay (I NEVER imagined I would end up sleeping at a monastery in my entire life) and it felt like the best sleep ever. After days of camping and hosteling on the cheap (the cheapest you could imagine), the newly married couple had their privacy, and so did I. A comfortable bed and a luxurious shower. And breakfast in the morning. It really was amazing.

The kids brought me back down to earth, with one squawking at the other, after I spent a few minutes back in Rome.  It was nice to go back, almost exactly 9 years later. I know I’ll go back again for real one day.  Maybe even with my good, still-married friends – if they’ll let me crash their second honeymoon like I did their first.

**

Speaking of food, there’s a review and giveaway on that other blog over there right now, for underWAY supplement drinks that claim to curb hunger. You can see what I think about them, and you can ask to try them, too, if you leave a comment, all you Canadians.

I’ve got stories. And I’ve got a blog. What a great place to tell them. But what I don’t have is time.  I’m so tired of complaining about how busy I am on here. Even if it’s true.

I’ve got the story about how when we got to England, I had a sinus infection, and then my latent-almost-non-existent asthma flared up due to the weather over there, so I ended up at the doctor asking for an inhaler and maybe some antibiotics. And I ended up at the bloody hospital all day with a port (IV) in my arm because they thought I had deep vein thrombosis/a pulmonary embolism. I didn’t. I had asthma and a sinus infection.

I’ve got stories of adventures in England. I’ll have to post some photos. Sometime.

I’ve got the story of coming back, which really I don’t even want to repeat, because I’m just going to get stressed out again. Because you expect, when you step on a plane to fly from the UK to Toronto, that you’re going to be sitting on it for about 8 hours, including boarding and landing and all that jazz.  But we were so lucky. We got to be on our plane for 14 hours! You can just imagine how much fun that was: 14 hours straight stuck on a tin can with a 2.5 year old and a 4.5 year old. Also, they threw in some drop-out-of-the-sky turbulence in for extra fun. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

I’ve got stories. But this week (we got back Tuesday night), I had a night out for book club. Mark had a dentist appointment. We had to unpack. We had to get the dog from the pet sitter. And we had to clean it all up because, yes, our house is for sale and we need to keep it ready to view. There’s a viewing today. Fantastic, I’m thrilled - but I’m soooooo tired.

Tonight I’m escaping for a night to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a little luxurious splurge with dear old friends from university. A group of lefty social workers (3 of us did our Master’s degrees together 10 years ago) who haven’t had a proper chance to catch up since one got married last summer, maybe since before that. There may will be wine and laughing and tears. It will be good.

On Sunday, I’m turning 33. We’ll have dinner with my family. There will be cake. It will be good.

Maybe I’ll have more time for stories next week.  Or maybe I’ll be storied out. I think I might be.

Today was Oliver’s end of year concert at school. I’d post a photo but I already packed the camera.

Today was an important meeting at work that we’d been anticipating. Lucky it happened before the evacuation in the afternoon.

Today I think I broke my toe accidentally kicking my desk, after stabbing myself in the arm with a metal shelf bracket last night.

Today there was a 5.5 earthquake centered in Quebec, greatly affecting Ottawa, and slightly affecting the Greater Toronto Area. I was driving to the concert. I missed it. As I mentioned, my office was evacuated- the building was just swaying, apparently.

Today there were tornadoes not far north of us, destroying many homes and injuring some. There may be more coming tonight.

Today it actually maybe seems like we might have this house ready to list, to put up for sale after all. Today, the house looks almost good. Just needs a clean (that’s tomorrow night).

Today I took the dog to the kennel for 3 weeks, and I keep forgetting she’s not here. Who’s going to clean up the kids’ mess from dinner? Oh. Right. Me.

Today we are still packing to go away to England. And probably will be until the last minute.

Today we are worried about getting to that flight, as the G8/G20 world leaders AND protesters descend on our area.

Today we are still worried about the Gulf and the BP oil spill. Even though I want to stick my head in the sand and just worry about my own life.

Today England and USA advanced to the next stage of the World Cup. Happy for both of them.

Today…today was a lot.

I thought I wasn’t looking forward to going away on this trip. I think, actually, any escape right now would be welcomed.

(This post is probably going to be sitting here for a while. I’ll be tweeting while I’m away, of course, but probably not blogging.)

This post is totally using the blog as a baby book.

This post is a couple of things that I don’t want to forget.

This post is total exploitation of the children.

1. Singing along to “Wavin’ Flag”- Young Artists for Haiti/K’Naan

2. Singing along to the Glee cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”

3. Clamoring for attention while giving various renditions of the alphabet.

I hope they look at these in 20 years and smile like I am now.

1. I’m still super busy. Story of my life. Particularly ramped up right now. Work & life – total madness. Should be shot for even sitting down in front of the computer.

2. I really like artichoke & asiago dip. Probably too much.

3. Matchstick (a word of mouth marketing company) wants to know what you thought after you read my Maple Leaf post, which you can share with them by taking this survey.

4. I’m making lots of summer plans that involve more time away with friends – totally awesome. Except for the part where I’ll owe Mark the same time…

5.  My house is being transformed. I’m quite happy. And sort of dismayed that we didn’t do a lot of it sooner.

(with apologies to Gord Downie and crew – link to their song/video Bobcaygeon)

Often, when I am alone with my kids, I am pretty stressed out. Since having children – I am not really blaming this on them – I can’t deal with stress like I used to. I’ve lost the patience I was once known for.

But sometimes? Sometimes we have a great time.

Spending an afternoon last weekend in Bobcaygeon, a small town in cottage country north east of Toronto, was one of those times. We visited my dad, who was camping (as he does) with a whole lot of Scouts (as he does) because he’s like pretty high up in the executive of Scouts Canada now, and nonchalantly tells me on Saturday he’s now in charge of Ontario and Quebec.

Watching Scouts build rafts and tip canoes and meeting Grandad’s friends wasn’t enough of an adventure for us.

We went into town. And in town, we found Lock 32 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.  And the Swing Bridge. And the sweet little shops. And it was good.

They skipped up and down the street, holding my hands, singing “Fish and Chips, Fish and Chips”. So I found them some. And we ate in a sit-down restaurant, just us three. And it was okay.

If you ask Oliver about that day, he’ll tell you there was a water snake in the lock (he heard some other kids screaming about it). What he won’t tell you so easily is that he nabbed one of the lock masters, and asked him questions for 20 minutes, and each question was given a full technical answer. So, you know, *I* know all about how the locks work too, now. And the lock master also tried to explain gravity to him. Let me remind you he’s 4. It was funny. And awesome.  They didn’t want to leave. I kind of didn’t either.

I liked that day an awful lot. I hope we have some more of those kinds of adventures soon.

Don’t read anything pervy into that title, ok?

So June! June is crazy. June is madness at work, June is trying to put our house up for sale, June is the last few days of kindergarten for Oliver, June is a trip to England at the end of the month.

June is a garden growing wild, two new babies to gift (including one that I’ve been waiting to meet for 3 years; her parents even longer), Father’s Day, my brother’s birthday, summer time, sunny days, thunderstorms.

June is has already started to be furniture moving (hey – remember when I asked for mudroom feedback? And we just made it a better mudroom? Well, now I’m sitting on the computer in my mudroom/office. Weird.), picture hanging, de-cluttering, redecorating, hiding any evidence that we actually live here with the removal of family photos, blah blah blah.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we’re trying to get it done in 2.5 weeks so that we can have the house ready for people to see while we are away. Which might sound crazy, but if we are away, there are no children to leave toys malingering, and no dogs to shed their hair all around.

So I need to spend a good deal less time online for a bit. Please excuse my absence. I’m scheduling a couple of posts right now. Even though I should be sleeping or moving a table or something.

Bear with me, my wild ride has just begun…

PS – Reminder – still time to enter the Maple Leaf Foods giveaway on the review blog. Until tomorrow night. Oh crap, picking a winner and arranging delivery? More on my to-do list!!

{Surprisingly, not about human relationships, mostly. This one is about food.}

Somewhere in between going off the grid altogether [raising chickens, living in the woods, etc.], and blindly trusting everyone and everything is the space in which I operate.  In fact, I vacillate to both extremes.

Last week, organizing some papers, I found an anti-globalization ‘zine I did with some friends for a school project: a tool to assist kids in understanding the evils of the IMF; why they shouldn’t listen to The Man; what they could do to stand up for their beliefs. I made it about 10 years ago. Back when I wouldn’t go to McDonalds, or Wal-Mart. Back when (well, a couple of years after that), I participated in the anti-Iraq war march in London.

Today, you might find me shopping at Wal-Mart, once in a while. I sort of work for The Man. Today I don’t feel like I have the time or the head-space to be much of an advocate. Today I’m making decisions based on speed and cost and both resources are limited by a number of factors – overwhelmingly the children.

And so I trust. I trust that when I purchase something, I’ve made the best decision I can in that split second, whether I remembered to check the expiry date or read the label or not. When pre-prepared or processed foods make it in my cart, I’m looking for reduced sodium and no/low nitrates and hopefully a few vegetables in there and will the kids actually like it, even.  Or sometimes, I just buy it knowing it’s not the healthiest thing, because it’s not a big deal that they won’t eat one unhealthy meal once in a while (I’m looking at you, Kraft Dinner). I know that overall, we feed them pretty well. As I’ve said before, I do most of the cooking myself, from scratch, for dinner.

For lunch, I’m doing what my family has done forever – serving a lot of luncheon meats. Ham, turkey, Montreal smoked meat infrequently. And yet, I know that there is so many reports coming out right now that processed meats increase the risk of cancer, of heart disease. Again, it’s not every day, but it’s enough for me to worry about. So I’m happy when a company comes out with ham and turkey that reduces sodium, takes out the unknown/un-pronounceable ingredients, and doesn’t use nitrates.

But for all this worry about nutrition, I’ve not been worrying about food safety.

Twenty-two Canadians died in 2008 after consuming tainted meat produced at a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto. Many other people got sick. Of course, I remember exactly when this happened. I remember looking in my fridge for any of the related products. We didn’t have any. We did have uncooked Maple Leaf chicken in the freezer – but I felt confident enough in my cooking ability to be able to kill any listeria lurking in there.

If you’re Canadian, and you own a tv, you will remember the commercial that the company issued soon after the outbreak, where CEO Michael McCain took responsibility for the actions that lead to the deaths, and promised change. I remember being struck by his honesty.

I happened to be struck by his honesty again last Thursday night – except in person.  Parent bloggers from around Toronto were invited to meet Michael and some of his colleagues at the company’s’ ThinkFOOD! Innovation Centre in Mississauga. The event was organized by Matchstick, which is a word of mouth marketing company that I have worked with before.

We were welcomed, informally greeted by the Maple Leaf staff who’d been reading our blogs (gulp!), and lead into the kitchen area for a more formal discussion, with questions and answers. The message from the company was to outline just how much they have improved their monitoring and cleaning of any food-borne bacteria, of how they had re-focused and re-trained staff. Of the new corporate staff brought on board for more accountability. Of their Maple Leaf Food Safety Pledge.

We also learned a lot about our own responsibility regarding food safety. This is probably my biggest take-away from the night – I realized how much I’m taking it for granted. I let my lunch sit on my desk all morning before I eat it. I often don’t have very clean counter tops in the kitchen. I use in-store delis, which are apparently major listeria breeding grounds. I usually hit the produce and meat sections in the grocery store first – so if I get distracted by those Joe Fresh clothes, there’s raw or frozen meat sitting in my cart longer than there should be.  We already kept our meat at the bottom of the fridge, and we already do lots of hand-washing, but those were good reminders too.

Lots of the other bloggers (some I knew, some I didn’t) asked some very tough questions of Mr. McCain and his staff.  I appreciated their honesty and openness. I ended up making a summary comment that was sort of something like this: that my life is like a house of cards, that it’s precariously standing up, ready to be blown over at any second. By a sick child, by a broken down car. I rely on many, many pieces coming together to make it work. And I realized, that evening, how much I rely on companies like Maple Leaf Foods (to be honest, there’s a store brand that I rely on SO MUCH more even) to provide my family with safe and nutritious food. That I have an hour to grocery shop every week, and I need to make a quick decision. I don’t want my kids to get sick; I don’t want to be buckled with worry that they are going to get sick, either from food-borne bacteria, or the wrong kind of additive. I was grateful for the opportunity to tell a major food producing company how important they really are.  There is no room for them to take short cuts.

And I, we – as parents, obviously have the biggest burden of the decision-making and choices here.  There needs to be less short cuts on my part, too, and more thoughtfulness.

If you’re interested in trying some of the Maple Leaf Foods products that we were able to try on Thursday night – and you might be, because they were quite yummy, head over to my review blog.  There’s a giveaway for Canadians only.

Disclosure: For my participation in this event, I was provided with a bag of samples of Maple Leaf Food products to try at home, coupons, a meat thermometer, an apron, and gas gift cards – as well as the bag to give away to my readers. I was provided with dinner at the event itself.